Fonda, London: ‘An exuberantly good meal’: restaurant review

This new Mexican restaurant serves up regional dishes so well crafted that conversation stopsFonda, 12 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BZ. Starters and small plates £7-£14, larger plates £23-£29, desserts £6-£11, wines from £39At Fonda, a new Mexican restaurant off London’s Regent Street, the staff have vital information and, boy, are they determined to impart it. Usually, speeches about ingredients and the best way to eat your lunch, feel like a nail puncture purposefully engineered to let all the air out of any fun you were hoping to have. Lunch becomes an exam to be passed. Am I doing this right? Will the staff approve? Oh, the social anxiety

Soak up the rays: wines tasting of sunshine

Escape the gloom with these big red wines bursting with the flavours of warm countriesThe Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.Cuevas de Arom Altas Parcelas, Calatayud, Spain 2021 (£18.99, shelvedwine

How to turn store-cupboard staples into brilliant breakfast bars | Waste not

Today’s recipe is based on the pumpkin, mulberry and spelt breakfast bars in my book Eating for Pleasure, People & Planet. They were easily adapted for this column’s purposes, because they can be made with any bits and bobs in the store-cupboard that need using up.These are a nutritious and very tasty grab-and-go breakfast, so it was very welcome to see Emma Bread, an artisan sourdough baker from Cape Town in South Africa, recreating them on Instagram, not least because she called them “the greatest on-the-go breakfast going”, adding that they are “nutrient-dense and easy to change, depending on what nut, seeds and dried berries you have in the cupboard”.She gave her version an African twist with puffed sorghum, baobab powder and spelt flour, but you can make them with whatever flour you have in the house. There’s also no need to peel the diced squash, root vegetables or apples before roasting them, because the skin adds flavour, texture and nutritional value, including fibre

Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for peanut butter and chocolate flapjacks | The sweet spot

The start of a new year feels like a good time to have a proper clear-out of my kitchen cupboards. After a frantic festive season, I like to take stock of what I’ve got and get creative with my store-cupboard staples. I had two large opened bags of oats and even more bottles of golden syrup, so naturally a batch of flapjacks was the only answer. You very possibly have all these items in your cupboards already, so have a rummage and give them a go.Prep 5 min Cook 45 min, plus cooling Makes 12230g salted butter, plus extra for greasing140g golden syrup 80g demerara sugar 100g smooth peanut butter 400g porridge oats 50g dark chocolate, melted 30g salted roasted peanuts, roughly choppedHeat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4, and grease and line a square 20cm cake tin with enough baking paper to leave an overhang

Let’s hear it for Alsace wines

When you’re on a wine press trip, you can spend your day drinking a lot of the same style of wine, and scribble something down only when something truly stands out. In Alsace recently, however, I made notes on nearly every single wine I tasted.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more

AngloThai, London W1: ‘There is an understated elegance to just about everything’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

The interior is beautiful and the cooking ingenious but don’t be daunted – it’s fun tooAngloThai, as the name suggests, has neatly entwined Thai and British roots. There are proudly British ingredients – Hebridean hogget, Cornish monkfish and crown prince pumpkin. And they’re cooked with Thai expertise in a kitchen led by John Chantarasak, who was brought up in Wales and trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Bangkok, where his father was born, and who, alongside his wife, sommelier and co-owner Desiree, has been beloved by the London food scene for several years now. Many new restaurants are said to be “much anticipated”, but in AngloThai’s case it has been anticipated for so many years now that many had given up hope of it ever becoming a reality.But you realise almost the moment you walk through the door where all that time went, because creating something as beautiful as this takes money and a great deal of planning